Monday, October 5, 2015

President Bashar Assad Is No Great Satan

Could anyone in the Obama administration have been so slow-witted to imagine that Russia wouldn’t move hard to counter US efforts to overthrow Moscow’s  ally, Syria?

The Syrian war began almost five years ago by the US, France, Britain and Saudi Arabia  to overthrow Syria’s Iranian and Russian-backed government. The result so far:  250,000 dead, 9.5 million refugees flooding Europe and  Syria shattered. 

This is nothing new: the first CIA coup attempt to overthrow a Syrian ruler Gen. Husni Zaim was in 1949.

A combination of imperial hubris and ignorance has led Washington to believe it could overthrow any government that was disobedient or uncooperative.  Syria was chosen as the latest target of regime change because  the Assad regime – a recognized, legitimate government and UN member –was a close ally of America’s Great Satan, Iran.  Formerly it had been cooperating with Washington.

After watching Syria be slowly destroyed, Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, moved his rook onto the Syrian chessboard.  For the first time since 1991, Moscow sent a small expeditionary  unit of 50 warplanes to Syria both to shore up the Assad regime and to reaffirm that  Russia has long-standing strategic interests in Syria.  

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